Understanding Iran

Iran is also building a 40 MW heavy water-moderated "research" reactor at Arak fuelled by

natural uranium. It is declared as being to replace the old Teheran reactor. The IR-40 design is

very similar to those used by India and Israel to make plutonium for nuclear weapons, and was

apparently designed by Russia's NIKIET. Construction is under way and the incomplete plant

was "inaugurated" in August 2006. In August 2009 it was about 63% complete, with the reactor

vessel due to be installed in 2011. In July 2011 AEOI reported it as 75% complete. Iran has said

that it will be under IAEA safeguards, and has been subject to IAEA inspection during

construction. However, from 2006 Iran has declined to provide IAEA with detailed design

information on the IR-40 reactor to allay concerns regarding its precise purpose. An IAEA

design verification visit in February 2013 noted that cooling and moderator plumbing was almost

complete, though in November critical components were not yet installed. It is now expected to

start up in 2014, with a delay due to slow progress with fuel fabrication. The UN Security

Council has demanded that construction of IR-40 cease due to it’s" plutonium production

potential. Iran is also building a 40 MW heavy water-moderated "research" reactor at Arak

fuelled by natural uranium. It is declared as being to replace the old Teheran reactor. The IR-40

design is very similar to those used by India and Israel to make plutonium for nuclear weapons,

and was apparently designed by Russia's NIKIET. Construction is under way and the incomplete

plant was "inaugurated" in August 2006. In August 2009 it was about 63% complete, with the

reactor vessel due to be installed in 2011. In July 2011 AEOI reported it as 75% complete. Iran

has said that it will be under IAEA safeguards, and has been subject to IAEA inspection during

construction. However, from 2006 Iran has declined to provide IAEA with detailed design

information on the IR-40 reactor to allay concerns regarding its precise purpose. An IAEA

design verification visit in February 2013 noted that cooling and moderator plumbing was almost

complete, though in November critical components were not yet installed. It is now expected to

start up in 2014, with a delay due to slow progress with fuel fabrication. The UN Security

Council has demanded that construction of IR-40 cease due to it’s" plutonium production

potential. - It's 2014 Iran is not about to give up its heavy water reactor.in a Nov 2011

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)report suggested the cylinder at Parchin was

intended for testing nuclear weapons designs and had been built with the assistance of a “foreign

expert.” Iran also agreed to respond in detail on the issue of the “foreign expert,” who has been

identified as Vyacheslav Danilenko, a Ukrainian specialist on Nano diamonds. While Iran’s

nuclear ambition cannot be underestimated, it does not seem to regard nuclear armament as an

existential issue. Instead, Iran is more likely to value nuclear armament as a matter of status for a

nation aspiring to become a dominant power in the region and, thus, to regain the glory of the

Persian Empire. There is also a clear difference in their respective capacity to sustain the

sacrifices involved. Iran is vulnerable to sanctions as its economy is more integrated into the

global economy. Moreover, in a more pluralistic and open society (with periodic elections) the

Iranian people have less tolerance for the economic disruptions caused by the sanctions.

North Korea’s determination for nuclear armament has been far stronger than the

combined determination of the international community to denuclearize it. The half-hearted

sanctions enacted by the Security Council and individual countries have proved affordable as an

insurance premium in view of the high value of insurance policy found in nuclear weapons.

Instead of crushing North Korea’s backbone, the actions of the Security Council ended up

strengthening its immune system against sanctions. Decisive difference lies in the nature of

alternatives to a diplomatic solution. For Iran, the alternative is not only more prohibitive

economic sanctions but a preemptive military strike from Israel. In the case of North Korea, the

military option has been ruled out from the beginning. The alternative to a diplomatic solution

was nothing more than partial sanctions without teeth and the absence of massive economic

assistance from the outside world and the Republic of Korea. Thus, North Korea sees no

convincing incentives to denuclearize through negotiations. The Fat Man nuclear bomb (20kt-

yield, implosion design) required 6.2kg of plutonium (or, if the country is unwilling to take the

extra step of converting its uranium to plutonium in nuclear reactors, about 13kg of highly

enriched uranium would give off a similar yield).

Nuclear bombs can be designed to detonate based on any number of conditions (specific

atmospheric pressure, sudden acceleration, manual command, etc.) and using a timer to trigger

the bomb would be very simple. The timer would send an electric signal to the control circuits

for the bomb, which would then trigger fast, synchronized pulses to special detonators (often

exploding-bridgewire detonators). The detonators would initiate a layer of conventional high

explosives, which would send a shockwave to compress a core of uranium or plutonium until it

reaches the critical density necessary to sustain a chain fission reaction, at which point it

explodes violently, releasing a lot more energy (several orders of magnitude) than given off by

the initial (conventional HE) explosion. Iran installs 3,000 advance centrifuges per month. For

peaceful purpose nuclear power centrifuges require 1,200 gas powered. I did the math off the fat

man nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki in WW2 and it takes around 9,000 advance centrifuges

interval for Iran’s nuclear ambition. Translating into the only way to resolve and bring them back

to negotiations for denuclearization is through heavy preemptive dismantling.